By Kelly Cilano

Many heroic stories are coming out of Japan as a result of the horrible circumstances there.

Those split-second decisions reveal the heart of the person making them.

Cowardice or courage? Run or fight? Your life or theirs?

In times of crisis decisions are made from the heart, not the head.

In our changing world our best-laid plans may be interrupted in a moment of time.

So how do you know what your heart is going to do? It’s no secret, really: your heart decides based on what you feed it.

On where your mind is allowed to linger, on who it is that you hang out with, on what you listen to and watch and read in books and magazines or on the Internet. It all affects what you will do in times of testing.

Yet times of testing are not always obvious until they become hindsight.

Backsliding is a hideous tool of Satan. It is very much like water in a canyon, consistently wearing down the rock, taking tiny pieces of it downstream to a new location.

It is not really a process you can sit down and watch. Yet it is constantly, quietly, patiently, cutting through, making a way around the rock and separating it from the main cliff.

Eventually the water will overrun it, and the rock will become submerged.

Teenager, this can happen in your life if you don’t make that decision to stay connected!

Young man, young woman, as you are learning how to survive in the world, compromise may look good. It may appear to be the easy way out, but it will cost you heavily in the long run.  Confusion isn’t always a heavy cloud or mist that causes you to stop and think. Often it just floats along with you like body odor: not always noticeable to you, but obvious to others who get close enough.

Protecting the heart is an ongoing, constant job and “garbage in, garbage out” is a truism in this case. You have to make judgments, you have to make decisions, and you have to base those decisions on truth. And, yes: you know where to find truth, rock solid advice, and principals that will save your behind every single time.

The Word of God, often coupled with that quick-picker-upper called pain, is used by God to remind you not so gently of that mistake you made before, and to motivate you not to go there again.

Most people know what is right just by virtue of conscience and common sense, and if they are thinking at all, everybody questions the Word of God at some point in their lives.

And that’s a good thing. God can certainly handle your questions, because He does have real answers that work.

The issue is not the questioning; the issue is in receiving the answer. We don’t like the answer.

It’s the spirit vs. the flesh (our sin nature) and like washing the salt off a wound, we are very quick to come up with mitigating circumstances, excuses, and flat-out I don’t want to responses.

If we are honest (and we are not) we that know washing the salt off isn’t beneficial. Yet we would rather live with the effects of the infection than to suffer the sting of repentance.

Repentance is like medicine: the quicker it is applied to the wound, the sooner the healing begins.

In general we want good things to happen in our lives, and that fortunately coincides with God’s plan. He wants the best for us, too.

When we go through hard times we may confuse the pain of healing (as we obey the Word of God at all costs) with His displeasure.

That is because we are too short-sighted. We see our particular circumstance – unhappy marriage, not fitting in with friends, loneliness, not enough money, health issues, dying – as reasons to cut Him loose and do it our way.

But we must keep the big picture in sight. Your decisions today affect where you will go after your life on earth, and while you won’t have a personal prayer team to give you a boost one way or the other out of Purgatory (which is found nowhere in the Bible) there is a Judgment Day on which that decision will be rendered (Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:11-15).

The condition of your heart is crucial because it is the factor on which you will be judged.

It isn’t about how good you are, because in Isaiah 64:6 it says our righteousness is like filthy rags.

You may compare well to other people, but compared to Christ, we all lose (Romans 3:23).

Our relationship with God, and our love born out of that relationship, is the basis for our deeds.

James 3:17 says faith without works is dead. Just like our bodies work on inhaling and exhaling, we take in the Word and exhale the love of God which determines the works done in the body.

We won’t get far without breathing; in fact we’d be dead. Our heart determines whether we live or die spiritually, and we must check it daily with the Word.

Judging your heart means making sure it lines up with the Word of God regardless of the pain involved, the questions in your head, or what people may say.

Know the Word of God and you will build your life on truth. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).